Christian religions across America are concerned about the effects of education on religiosity, and with good reason – past research shows a negative correlation between level of education and religiosity. In other words, data show that as level of education rises, level of religiosity drops. Here’s some data for all Christian religions.

However, there is one Christian religion that bucks this trend. For this religion there is a positive correlation, meaning that as education level rises, so does religiosity. That religion is Mormonism. This unusual positive correlation between education and religiosity among Mormons even made it into the Wiki article on “religiosity and intelligence”. Here’s some religiosity data for Mormons.

Why does Mormonism buck the trend that exists among other religions? I think that latter-day revelation on the importance of learning plays a role. The Lord has instructed us to “seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study” (D&C 88:118). He is not just referring to scriptures here; He is referring to all good books. Christian religions that reject latter-day revelation have not accepted this instruction from the Lord - they have not gotten the message that the Lord wants us to continually learn.

The LDS faith is also unique in the sense that it lays all its cards on the table. It encourages people to thoroughly explore its doctrines of salvation and the lifestyle it engenders among its members. It encourages people to study the Book of Mormon and revelations from the prophets – go ahead and scrutinize the teachings, ask questions in church classes, and talk with others about church doctrine. With regard to the doctrines of salvation, there is nothing to hide.

The fact that educated Mormons score relatively high on measures of religiosity suggests that they are finding harmony between what they’ve learned in their studies of the gospel and in their studies of science, philosophy, arts, and literature. If this harmony did not exist, measures of religiosity would certainly be lower among educated Mormons.

I have found much harmony between my religious and secular studies; these have strengthened my testimony. At the same time, however, I have found some inconsistencies, particularly between science and religion. Inconsistencies have not created a faith crisis in my life, nor should they. Inconsistencies between secular and religious learning should not be shunned – they should be sought out and explored with the understanding that secular knowledge is continually evolving, as is our knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven.

Acknowledging inconsistencies between secular and religious learning is an important step in moving closer to the truth of all things.

Very interesting graphs indeed. I also find this "reverse-trend" fascinating. Just goes to show the church shouldn't be scared of education one bit.

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Stan

9/1/2010 09:55:38 am

I think one possible factor is our strong commitments to the church made right at college age. We go on missions, get married and make very strong covenants and commitments to God and the church often times while getting a college education. Those commitments, over and above most other Christian religions, have to have an effect on religiosity and how one handles apparent inconsistencies discovered through education. You might say the average Mormon college graduate is more invested in their religion making it harder to turn away.

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Dave C.

9/1/2010 09:57:39 am

Right. The church's emphasis on education has the added benefit of increasing religiosity among its members.

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DavidH

9/1/2010 12:05:14 pm

I remember this study on Mormons when it first came out. Does anyone know whether those results have been replicated by other studies since then, or whether the trends have changed among subsequent co-horts? Also, my recollection is the religiosity increased among Mormon men from college to grad school, but decreased among Mormon women.

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John

9/1/2010 12:42:24 pm

One of the most exciting things for me is to witness the youth in our church grow up, unafraid, excited by knowledge, gaining faith as they gain knowledge.

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Matthew Chapman

9/1/2010 03:38:23 pm

Looking at the traits measured by the two graphs, it is clear that these are two separate studies, using separate indicators to measure "religiosity".

It is therefore probably not the best science to compare the two.

I am suspicous of studies showing a negative correlation between education and religous devotion. It just does not correlate with my personal experience, with friends inside or outside the Church.

The one study that I am most familiar with was conducted in Great Britain, which is as anomolous in its proportion of self-described agnostics/atheists as the U.S. is in its proportion of believers.

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Dave C.

9/1/2010 05:11:05 pm

DavidH,

Yes, the studies dealing with Mormons are somewhat dated - circa 1985. I agree that they need to be replicated. Interestingly, more recent studies continue to show that for other Christian religions, religiosity decreases with increased education. Your memory is spot on - there was a slight decrease in religiosity for highly educated LDS women.

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Paul

9/1/2010 08:07:01 pm

Another possibility is that if you don't pay tithing, you are "unworthy". People who have less education, are more likely to be financially stressed, and thus less likely to pay tithing. "Unworthiness" affects their spiritual self-esteem and often their social standing (as if poverty weren't hard enough already), so they would be more likely to leave. Perhaps careful analysis of data would allow this hypothesis to be tested.

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Lowell

9/2/2010 01:28:59 am

Where is the source data? I have heard this claim, however always placed it in the "myth" category because I have yet to see the actual study that verifies this claim.

Just trying to practice my LDS religion, as both that and education require me to verify my claims. :)

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Dave C.

9/2/2010 04:44:24 am

Paul,

That is an interesting hypothesis. Here is how I would set up the analysis to answer that question, assuming the data meet the requirements:

A regression analysis with - religiosity as the outcome variable - education as the main predictor - tithing and financial stress as covariates.

This would give us a look at the influence of education while controlling for tithe paying and monetary stress.

Lowell,

The data can be viewed in Albrecht & Heaton's "Secularization, Higher Education and Religiosity", published in LDS Social Life: Social Research on the LDS Church and its Members, edited by James Duke (Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1998), 293-314

or by simply going to http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/rsc&CISOPTR=1464&REC=1

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NorthboundZax

9/2/2010 03:40:25 pm

I suspect Stan has placed a finger on where much of the signal is coming from. We have several intensive religious identity events that often center at college age. However, even besides the formal events, I have to wonder if the study were able to correct for a 'BYU' effect the trend might be closer to the others. It is pretty clear that a significant fraction of highly educated LDS have more than a passing involvement with BYU at some point in their educational journey.

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Dave C.

9/3/2010 05:21:02 am

I agree that it would be interesting to know if there was a BYU effect in the study resulting from a sort of biased sampling.

"Down with south going Zaxs"

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NorthboundZax

9/3/2010 03:51:13 pm

It does make one wonder a bit. A couple of the most religious highly educated Christians I know went to Wheaton. Clearly a Wheaton signal is too small to impart much of a noticeable signal among religiosity of Christians, but it wouldn't be surprising if the relationship between BYU and LDS educated were strong enough to bias the sample.

Interestingly, you and I would disagree on where some of the inconsistencies exist. But, such disagreements only make the process more fun.

We should not be bothered that problems exist. They always exist. There are significant problems in Mormon history; evolutionary science; general theology; and philosophy. Such is life.

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Miss Fiona

9/4/2010 08:50:38 am

Ouch... did anyone notice the charts comparing daily prayer with America's Christians vs. LDS folks? Wonder why we do worse? Not that I'm advocating we have to be better than someone else, but wondering and surprised that in general we slacken our faithfulness in that area while our other Christian friends are more vigilant. Is it because church is just a social thing and we go through the motions, & while our fellow Christians may miss some motions that can be more visual(ie regular church attendance or tithes/offerings), when it comes down to it they have their heart in the right place and have a closer relationship with God and His Son and have thus feel to talk with Them regularly?

Very interesting study. No matter when it was done it makes us all pause and do a self-check. Never was about "us" or "them"... it's about "Me and my Savior" and our own personal graph line getting closer to being like Him.

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Damian

9/20/2010 07:45:11 pm

During my middle school and half way through high school I didn't' really bother to read my scriptures. But thats probably cause I was into drugs at the time. My parents had enrolled me in to a new school <a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/west-ridge-academy">west ridge academy in utah.</a> They helped in encouraging me in reading my scriptures more. Even in college it became a addict to read it as well as reference.

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Michael

9/29/2010 02:13:21 pm

The study you cite was completed by two BYU professors in 1984, noting a positive correlation between church activity and educational attainment for ALL Christian denominations (though greatest for Mormons). The authors sought to combat the "secularization hypothesis" that higher levels of education correspond to lower levels of religious activity. The data was obtained by 1) a voluntary mail-out survey to on-record church members and 2) interviews by local ecclesiastical leaders. It would be interesting to see a similar, up-to-date survey using modern methods.

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Thomas

9/25/2013 06:15:17 am

I know this may be a divergent point, or perhaps this was never implied, but just in case it was, I thought, if it turns out the correlation is due to BYU influence or fear/guilt of tithing, that wouldn't logically change the indications the positive correlations produce. God certainly allows our guilt to bring us to repent, and if BYU aids people to remember God during their education and/or attribute the knowledge to God, then the miraculousness of the correlation isn't decreased, only explained. The outcome is the same.